Thursday, March 18, 2010

A whole lot more information (and confusion) can be found here, but the gist is that this was the old Carmel Theatre, at the corner of Ocean and Mission Streets in Carmel, California, built about 1936, and torn down in the late 1950s to make way for the Carmel Plaza shopping center.

Below is the current Google street view of that intersection. The building on the left replaced the old theatre. Notice that the building to the right, across Mission Street, is similar in design to the old theatre. I wonder if they were built around the same time?

When I was growing up, that building on the right housed Mission Cleaners. If I recall correctly, back in the 80s it was the former site of an ice cream parlor that figured prominently in Clint Eastwood's run for mayor (the administration he defeated had outlawed take-out food including ice cream, on the theory that banning take-out food would result in cleaner sidewalks). This was referred to in the song "Don't Mess With The Mayor" by the Medflys, with the line "where they'll bust you for an ice cream cone." I also heard rumors back then about campaign posters featuring His Honor, gun in one hand, ice cream cone in the other, with the caption "Law. Order. Ice cream. Clint for Mayor." But I never actually saw one, so they might not have existed.

And all this and 50 cents will get you maybe half of tomorrow's newspaper.

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comments:

That's fascinating. I was going to say it might have been the same building until I saw the fire hydrant. The other controversial business that went in there after Mission Cleaners was Orange Julius. There was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth in Carmel over the prospect of bringing in fast food. The residents were assured this was a "higher class" type of fast food ;-)